Salem

With the current state of the game it seems there are essentially individuals or groups of individuals who are in a sense demi-gods. They can easily punch holes through multiple layers of walls, while ignoring any and all defensive options which are currently in game. I understand that these players have put in the time and effort to get to this point and it should stay that way. I also understand that no base should be impenetrable, more so when regarding more veteran characters who want to raid. I also believe that these established players have no place raiding people who just started/have not left scents and have no realistic way of defending themselves.

What I am suggesting is implementing a new skill/system which would make defending ones base a viable option, rather then simply running and starting over. I have not taken into account all edge cases/scenarios yet, but believe the basis of what I am outlining, with a few tweaks, would make the game a lot more appealing to new comers. Keep in mind its a work in progress.

Goal: To make the raiding/murder of new comers, specifically those who are not committing crimes and are living the life of a hermit an actual challenge/risk to more established raiders/players.

Skill name: Home Is Where The Heart Is (Just a starting point).
Prerequisites: Cannot have purchased any of the "dark arts" skills, such as Larceny, trespassing, or the ability to murder. Once learned, removes the ability to purchase these.
Proficiencies: Not sure yet, likely not "easy" to obtain, but should be possible for a hermit to obtain within a month or so of active game play.

Bonus: When defending your personal claim a player is granted bonus blood/yellow bile based on the blood/yellow bile of invading players, as well as the number of invaders. This bonus only applies when on your own claim, this means it is purely defensive and provides zero benefit to raiding others. It also only applies to the claim owner.

Lore: The way I imagine it would be your settler had led a peaceful life (ie no dark arts), tended their land, raised a family and created their community. In the face of danger (a raid) the lead settler (claim owner) is presented with two choices, fight or flight. Currently as it, flight is the only viable option 99% of the time. The settler knowing very well that this is his home, temporarily bolsters his physical prowess in the face of danger and in the defense of his home.

Things to note:

The intent of this skill is not to make it impossible to raid peaceful players, but to make it an actual risk, to go alongside the rewards.

The bonuses granted would not take into effect gear related bonuses, as such well geared raiders would still have the edge in that department.


If you are one of these "demi-gods" please take a step back and keep in mind that you account for an extremely small portion of an extremely small community. The idea of a change like this is not to ruin your fun, but to spread the fun out amongst others as the more people having fun, the more people the game will attract and the more successful it will be.

Thoughts, comments and constructive criticism please. You will not change my mind that something like this is needed, but if you are more experienced with the raiding/combat then I am please contribute, I will be updating this as I flesh out the details a bit more.

***** terrible idea.

Towns are easily defended even from high humor characters

T0ne wrote:Thoughts, comments and constructive criticism please. You will not change my mind that something like this is needed, but if you are more experienced with the raiding/combat then I am please contribute, I will be updating this as I flesh out the details a bit more.

Why ask for opinions (granted Dallane always goes into these threads with the same response) when you have already closed yourself off to any way but your own ideas? As stated in the BOLD text above.

Those Demi-Gods you speak of seem to be the more active forum posters, and you sort of threw down a gauntlet.. so expect to get posts that you do not like/do not agree with/do not consider helpful.

The game is changing, seige / raid mechanics have changed since the small amount of time that i have been playing.

This idea works for you, and i can see why you would think its a good idea based on some of your experiences as shared through your forum posts however, do not expect to get friendly replies (have you not read other threads dealing with this subject matter?)

Few thoughts...
Not sure how interested they are in keeping new players because from my understanding, the client kills newbs faster than any lack of defense.
Once you make it that far (and downloaded Enders), this game is a struggle, it feels like its meant to be tough..

2 weeks ago, I would probably agree with some of your post, but the more i play the more i appreciate that at anytime, i could lose EVERYTHING, i have to be careful of stuff i get from town, i have to be careful of the way my base looks. If i see someone breaking at my fence, i log out and then patch it up in the morning and hope my turkeys survived.

Defending a base is a viable option if you choose to use the tools given to you (could we have more tools... sure). You just cant expect to be handed those options because you choose to play a certain way. If someone stronger than you wants your stuff, they will get your stuff (they earned it). Placing "innocents" into the equation means little, because the more you farm the more stuff you will end up having, the better target you become. Rather than have a "buff" why not move a couple of times, until you get the money to create a base that can be better defended. Raise a character that can defend. Just because you choose to live peacefully, does not mean others should leave you alone. Create a separate defender, and in time (not overnight) that defender may get strong enough to actually give you a chance. A buffed farmer would equal an over confidant farmer. Even a farmer with this skill would be no match for a talented raider.

I thought it would be nice to have a town for newbs to learn the game in Peace up to a certain level, but there are options for that provided by players, and what the people behind the avi's do is what makes each server unique.

T0ne wrote:Prerequisites: Cannot have purchased any of the "dark arts" skills, such as Larceny, trespassing, or the ability to murder. Once learned, removes the ability to purchase these.

this is completely broken lol

Bad Idea because of alts and forcing people to not be able to do criminal acts is terrible.

no matter the other opinions about the specific idea (which would need a ton of polishing some way or another ... perhaps considering that low players have a form of grace period where they're invulnerable) this thread brings up quite a few ugly things ... Most and foremost that old players seem to believe that the game should be for them and not grow much/at all, name-calling everything trying to make it more playable for new players as catering to noobs or to people not bothering to read the wiki. (newsflash ... the wiki are rather average and in no way perfect, failing to explain quite a few things)

Without a certain amount of hand holding there is no new players, (pay mind that I'm not saying get rid of perma-death, etc ... that is what makes the game unique in some way ... Perma-Death is way to rare in games nowadays if you ask me) ... how much this hand holding should be (if simply much better in-game documentation, to previously mentioned grace period of some kind ... say perhaps till Trespassing is bought) is an open question ... succeeding in stopping a incoming flow of new players with arcane game settings and a overly elitist lean to the game mechanics leads to the result of no game.

I agree on the motive but:

You have a "turtle" town builder with the skills you suggest.
You and friends have alts, living there, with dark arts.

Trolls be trolls and this way they are just harder to catch.

As it stands, new players have two types of defense that will leave them unraided (pretty much, unless its personal)
- Settle somewhere away from the center and Boston. Think edges of the world.
Forum also provides enough location data to not settle next to raiders.
- Before settling, scout the area, check if there are people there and if you want to settle, begin with walls and dont stockpile. Loads of braziers couldn't hurt either.

Players stockpile without proper defense and claimsize... That gets them raided.

To be honest I don't think the OP ever expected the idea to be adopted in it's current form, but maybe (and I venture this cautiously) he was looking for some debate about it and potentially reasoned arguments as to why it's good or bad. Instead he got a lot of grief, anger and accordingly a huge amount of publicity.
I recently had a similar experience when venturing forth with an idea and was effectively shouted down by angry raiders - you know, I get it, you don't want changes to 'your' game. But honestly, you are bullying noob's and novice players left right and centre on the forums for no apparent reason other than you think you can - ask yourselves this though; who, if not these noobs and novices will actually PAY for anything in this game. Who will provide you with bases to hit and claims to raid ?

I suggest (and its just a suggestion) - if an idea is ****, ignore it. That way it also won't get the attention that according to you lot it never deserved in the first place. Either way, 'older' more experienced raider players deserve and I think get a large amount of respect on these forums - I submit therefore the idea you don't waste it by crapping on meaningless threads.

For the record, and the sake of the thread I actually think the idea is too complex to be implementable, but I did see a suggestion for some noob protection in here - whilst not really 'in-keeping' with the raider spirit, maybe auto-teleportation back to boston for all characters with less than an average of 10 in biles if they are murdered is a workable solution. Protecting whats 'yours' with such a weak character is unlikely and also not reasonable to expect, but some sort of noob life protection might be.Then again, learning by dying is probably also a valuable lesson.

ok i didn't read every thing... since pretty much it just seems every one is bashing the idea.

but any way.... sadly this game is based on people trolling each other and stealing/destroying every ones hard work... so this isn't going to make it in to the game any way.

but...FEEDBACK:
1: should only apply to hermits
2: should also allow for others to defend since a low lvl char would know nothing of the combat system... and would probably just get stun locked.
3: there is no reward for raiding a low lvl and most likely not much of a reward for raiding a hermit... some hermits do get pretty far... but not many... people raid them just to destroy some ones hard work to troll them.


a better solution would be to make a non-PVP server or allow high level towns to upgrade to non-PVP areas or build some building like a Sheriffs station/Jail that makes (X) area around it non-PVP.